Thanks Syntarsus, that's exactly what I meant with my somewhat short comment.

The reason why I'm so disappointed is that 2 years ago I've talked to the STALKER developers at the GC: there was no talk about monsters, the gameplay was ought to be somewhat Operation Flashpoint-like.

For me Monsters stand for the point in the game development process where all the eye candy game engine was finished and maxed out, leaving a "uh... sooo we need some kind of story and uh... characters in the game - let's take some monsters!". Addtitionally monsters don't force the designers to put effort in KI: no one knows how monsters behave so no one can complain they're unrealistic. Usually they come in hordes, growl at you and are just big cannon fodder.

There are some "monster games" I love: Unreal (the Skarji!), HL,... uhm.. that's it. HL2 of course will be great. Doom3 OTOH leaves me cold: just a graphics/engine demo like D1 and D2.